Simple & Healthy Vegetarian Food

Menu

Rustic Plum, Ginger & Cinnamon Galette

I’m not a big plum-eater (and I like to carefully place my hyphens). However, when I spotted a whole array of fruit for sale at a market stall (that was significantly cheaper than my usual supermarket) I just couldn’t say no. Before I had even exchanged cash for plums, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them.

When I made a plum galette previously, it was using an overly-sweet pastry and a plain plum filling. This time, I wanted to cut down on the refined sugar in the crust, and instead of sweetening the plums with a whole heap more sugar, I decided to add a small amount of honey and cinnamon. I also added a lovely kick with some freshly grated ginger. Ask Liam, it really is lovely!

I’ve had to battle with myself to save each slice I’ve taken to work until lunch. As soon as my bottom hits the chair in the morning, my stomach (brain, even) craves this. But boy, is it worth the wait every time!

The second best aspect of this rustic beauty (the first being the taste: the wonderful punch of ginger-y plums in every mouthful) is that it is so darn easy to make. You can even make the pastry in a food processor, which will take about 20 seconds. Personally, I do mine in a big bowl, but only because I’m lazy with the washing up!

I have so much going on at the minute, washing up is always the last thing I want to do. I’m quite sure everyone can relate to that! Good news though: we’re moving into our very own house next week (which has a dishwasher, yippee!)

I find the summer here really unbearable. Yes, the English summer. Even 25 degrees is too much, let alone the 32 degrees that we had to ensure in London recently. Trying to sort out my hoard of belongings and pack everything ready to move isn’t proving to be as enjoyable as I would have hoped, seeing as merely moving in my superheated flat is enough to make me break out a sweat.

I wanted to post some healthy ice cream recipes today (like, really healthy. Like, just-made-out-of-fruit healthy) because Liam and I have been living off it lately due to the heat. I just couldn’t find the time between baking this plum, ginger & cinnamon galette, preparing lunch and breakfast for the week, standing on my head, and fulfilling my Netflix-addict needs to actually make some while it was still light.

There is always next time, I guess!

Until then, why don’t you have a slightly more guilty (but not too guilty) treat with this plum galette.

I’m so excited that I can bring you food from my new kitchen soon. YEAH!

What you need:

Pastry:

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons honey (I used wildflower honey, it is delicious!)

1/3 cup cold water

Filling:

400g plums (I used 10, which were small-medium sized), halved and pitted, each half sliced into 3

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated

1 tablespoon honey (again, I used wildflower honey)

1 teaspoon dried, ground cinnamon

Approximately 1/2 – 1 tablespoon flour, for dusting the pastry before you add the plum topping

1 egg, beaten

What you do:

To a large bowl or food processor, add the flour, butter, salt and honey. Either quickly combine with your hands or whizz for 10 seconds. Add the water, and mix this in with your hands again, or if using a food processor, whiz for another 5-10 seconds, until everything is combined and comes together.

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and kneed a couple of times to make sure everything is combined. Shape into a ball, cover with cling film and pop it into the fridge while you prepare the plums.

Half, pit, and slice the plums. They will contain quite a lot of juice, so pat them thoroughly with kitchen paper. I also like to place them in a sieve to drain while I prepare the rest of the ingredients, and just occasionally give it a stir to make sure the juice gets through the sieve.

Place the plums, ginger, cinnamon and honey in a bowl and make sure everything is well mixed.

Preheat the oven to 200 C (180 C Fan).

Onto a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 12 inches in diameter. I transferred mine to a pizza stone before I gave it the last rolling out, just to make it a little easier to transfer over. Leaving about 2 inches around the edge, give the dough a light dusting of flour.

Place the coated plums onto the pastry, leaving about 2 inches free around the outer edge. It looks really pretty if you make a concentric pattern, starting in the middle. You can fill in any little gaps when you finish. Next, fold the outer edge of pastry over the plums. You can see my pictures if you are unsure!

Make sure there are no holes or gaps in the pastry, because you may get some leakage. We want all of the plummy goodness to stay inside!

Whisk the egg and brush over the pastry.

Place the galette in the oven for approximately 45 minutes, until the pastry is nicely golden brown.

Leave to cool slightly when you take it out the oven. Serve hot or cold (it is scrumptious both ways!)